Kawasaki had no answer to Honda's pace in the Suzuka 8 Hours, but Leon Haslam says it 'can't be disappointed' with a second-place finish.
2019 champion Kawasaki lacked the pace to defend its crown on the return of the Suzuka enduro after a two-year hiatus, with Haslam, Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes finishing a lap down on the winning Honda crew comprising Tetsuta Nagashima, Takumi Takahashi and Iker Lecuona.
However, Haslam feels Kawasaki should be satisfied with its performance in the Japanese endurance classic, even if it fell short of scoring back-to-back victories after its 2019 triumph. “I think we maximised what we did and we can go home proud. For sure we wanted to win and there are a few areas we want to obviously try to improve on to do that.
However, this strategy backfired when he was caught out by backmarker traffic on his way to the first chicane, leaving him on the ground for 30 seconds before he could get going again. “I've won this race before and the target is always to win,” he said. “But it's so difficult to have a big priority in World Superbike and to come here and to take on everybody that is still fast.
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